Canadian Employment Rises by 75,000 in July; Unemployment Falls to 6.4%

On Friday, Statistics Canada (StatCan) reported that Canadian employment rose by 75,000 jobs, or 0.4%, in July. The employment rate increased 0.1 percentage points to 60.9%.

Since April, total employment has increased by 181,000 jobs, or 0.9%, driven by a rise in full-time work, which increased by 193,000 positions (1.1%).

The unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage points to 6.4% in July, the lowest rate since July 2024. This marked the third consecutive monthly decline, with the rate down 0.5 percentage points since April and 0.5 percentage points year-over-year.

StatCan noted that a higher proportion of unemployed people were finding work compared with a year earlier. The job-finding rate—the proportion of unemployed people who found a job between June and July—was 20.8%, up from 18.5% a year earlier but below the 26.6% average for the same period from 2017–19, before the COVID-19 pandemic.